Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(78)

I looked to Tod and he was watching me closely. “Everything’s fine,” I assured him.

“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Tod said.

“No really, it is.”

“Girlie, pu-lease. I had a hot guy like that I’d be all over him, embarrassing my friends enough to leave early so I could really be all over him.”

“You do have a hot guy like that,” I told him.

“Not the same ten years on. You two are in the first blush of romance. You should be going at it like rabbits.”

“I broke up with him,” I blurted, do not ask me why, I shouldn’t have and I knew it.

Tod blinked at me, face shocked.

See? I knew I shouldn’t have.

“What?” he asked.

“I broke up with him when I ran out of the room after I saw the flowers. I called him and broke up with him. We made a deal, he gets tonight then we’re over.”

“You said you phoned to thank him,” Tod told me.

“I kinda… um… fibbed.”

Tod looked at me. He opened his mouth then closed it and looked away. Then he looked back, opened his mouth again and yelled, “Are you f**king nuts?”

Most everyone turned to stare including, to my horror, Vance.

I turned to Tod, my back to the room (and Vance). “Tod! Keep your voice down.”

“Girl, that boy is hot for you, not to mention that boy is just plain hot.”

“Tod –”

“You need a doctor. You need an intervention. You need Daisy,” Tod said and started looking around the room.

“No! Do not call Daisy over here. Why do you think I fibbed to you earlier today? I didn’t want this kind of reaction.”

“What’s going on?” Roxie hissed from beside us. She looked gorgeous, wearing a figure-skimming, strapless, little black dress of her own and her shoes were nearly as amazing as mine.

“Jules broke up with Vance. It’s over. Done. Kaput,” Tod announced.

“What?” Roxie screeched.

This time I felt the room’s attention on my back at Roxie’s outburst.

I closed my eyes (I really shouldn’t have told Tod) then I opened them. “Please, be quiet,” I begged.

“Why did you break up with him?” Roxie asked in a low voice.

“It’s too complicated to explain.”

“But… he’s macho, he rides a Harley and he bought you flowers. Macho men who ride Harleys don’t buy women flowers. They take them to a roadhouse and get them drunk and get in their pants,” Roxie explained.

“What’s happening?” Ally asked, she and Indy had arrived together.

“Don’t tell them,” I said quickly.

“Jules broke up with Vance. It’s over,” Roxie said over me.

Both of them turned to stare at me.

“That’s what she did after she saw the flowers,” Tod shared.

“I thought you said you were thanking him,” Indy said.

“She lied,” Tod told them.

“Why on earth would you do that?” Ally (kind of) yelled.

“Because I didn’t want this exact same thing to happen,” I said in a soft clip, giving up on getting them to be quiet.

“Ya’ll, what is goin’ on?” May asked, pushing close and I could see Daisy on her heels.

Damn.

Daisy. Not good.

And May. Worse.

“Jules broke up with Vance. It’s over,” Roxie, Tod and Ally said together.

“You are jokin’,” Daisy said, eyes narrowed and I moved back, not wanting to be in bitch-slapping-nail-scratching distance.

“Where’s that cake? I’m takin’ back the cake. Lettin’ my grandchildren eat it. They aren’t crazy fools. They deserve it,” May announced.

“Please don’t make a big deal if this. This is not a big deal. We’ve only been together a few days,” I told them.

“A few days for these boys is a few months for normal men. He’s in deep, you’re in deep and you damn well know it,” Daisy snapped.

“Yes. I do,” I snapped back, leaning into her and having… had… enough.

It was my f**king life and it was my f**king birthday and I could do whatever the hell I wanted.

At my tone and what I didn’t know was the look on my face, everyone leaned back a bit.

“My whole family died in a car crash when I was six. My Mom, Dad and older brother. I was with them, got really hurt, spent a lot of time in the hospital but I survived. When I was ten, my new puppy was run over by a truck. Splat!” I clapped one palm on the other and everyone jumped. “When I was eleven, my grandpa, the only living grandparent I had left, died of Parkinson’s. When I was fifteen, my Auntie Reba died after having knee replacement surgery. Knee replacement surgery,” I hissed the last three words. “Four months ago, Park died. I found him in an alley. He was the best kid I’d ever met and I’ve met a lot of them. This morning, I saw the scar of the gunshot wound Vance got during some business he was doing for Lee. He was shot again a few days ago, protecting me. I will not lose another person in my life. I will not lose someone else I care about. I will not.”

“Girlie –” Tod said softly.

My eyes were blurry again and I just hated that. “I will not,” I repeated, turning to Tod.